Elizabeth Sandifer

A tremendously effective tone piece of rising action. The decision to do a cold open to dispatch the episode’s headline event sets the tone well, and seems where you have to start in looking at the episode. First, the obvious criticisms, which are numerous: they literally bring him back after sixteen episodes with nothing more than a Missy-esque “well I escaped”; there’s nothing like room to actually build his arc this episode; it amounts to a Martin-esque “I BROUGHT YOU ANOTHER VIEWPOINT CHARACTER I HOPE YOU LIKE IT” of exactly the sort that the show historically does poorly (and for that matter so does Martin). Fine. But of at least equal weight is the sort of bloody-minded televisual efficiency with which it’s done. The Hound does Unforgiven and we got Ian McShane to be the walking cliche needed to do it. Fair enough. It’s hard to complain about an eleven minute western shot in Northern Ireland with Rory McCann and Ian McShane.

Aside from giving the episode a sense of oddness from the get-go, it sets an almost necessary theme; one that’s fairly quickly emphasized as we deal both with fellow religious fanatics (and Maribald is definitely a religious fanatic, even as he’s a somewhat more straightforwardly sympathetic one than the High Sparrow) and old wars. The relatively large number of parts and of hard cuts belies the tightness of the episode, with scene after scene of people preparing for battles and getting dragged into old conflicts. Things like the cut from Lyanna Mormont to the Kingslayer and Blackfish’s parlay and back to Jon Snow are elegant things. And it’s difficult to seriously call the Hound-Arya-Hound sequence at the end a set of arbitrary “hard cuts” even as they don’t quite fit into any of the standard categories of transition. 

There’s also a stripped simplicity to the majority of scenes. All of them have straightforward stakes and a clear structure of someone trying to get what they want. For once the profusion of short scenes is simply an episode moving quickly and with pace. Even the quiet scenes have great moments – Olenna’s “I wonder if you’re the worst person I’ve ever met” is fantastic, as (once again) is Natalie Dormer’s performance of “I am very clever and two steps ahead of everyone else in the room.” And the Yara/Theon scene is a small delight, with some of the best chosen nudity in the series’ history, a bunch of great lines (Gemma Whelan’s delivery of “fuck justice then, we’ll get revenge” is perfect) and a throwaway line about Daenerys that does a lot of larger structural work for the season. And the short Arya scene is quite effective, abruptly putting Arya in a very new sort of danger – she’s literally never had any sort of serious injury before, and seeing Maisie Williams get to do a very standard bit of Game of Thrones acting for the first time in season six is a delight. 

Seeing Jaime in a decidedly different place, at once taken down a few notches and put in a new position of power, is similarly rewarding, and having both Clive Russell and Jerome Flynn back after absences of varying lengths is satisfying.…

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Linking this excellent bit of discussion about the ending of Neoreaction a Basilisk seems apropos to start. Not everything observed there was conscious, but it’s all entirely consistent with my thinking, and is some of what I want to pick at with the TERFs essay. More broadly, one of the points I circle around in Neoreaction a Basilisk is that the way forward (even if toward the eschaton) comes through conceptualizing the idea of the erotic.

In line with this goal, then, it is my pleasure to introduce Eruditorum Press’s new sex and gender columnists, Daniel Harper and Robin Bland. They’ll be writing actual essay-stuff for us every Friday going forward. I don’t want to speak too much about what to expect from them, not least because I really want them to make the slot their own as much as Jack, Jane, and Josh (OK, I admit it, Daniel and Robin are shameless diversity hires) have theirs. But I will say that I brought them on board because I think they will write about sex and gender the way Eruditorum Press’s vision demands – as something pregnant with strange possibilities and terrors. And to begin in that mission, Daniel will be along in literally just a minute with a piece on the Fourth Doctor, Leela, and kink relationships. 

(And to answer the very obvious question, Last War in Albion will be switching to posting chapters in their entirety as opposed to attempting weekly serialization.)…

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Announcements about the future of Comics Reviews at the end. For now, the usual.

Civil War II #1

I really try not to be that critic. You know – the one who says provocative things like “Bendis can’t write.” Because, i mean, he’s a tremendously popular and bankable writer, and his strengths are obvious. So let’s try this – Brian Michael Bendis sucks at modern comics serialization. Like, he is actively really fucking bad at it. Consider Civil War II, a comic in the middle of which the Free Comic Book Day Civil War II issue simply happens. Or, rather, doesn’t. You literally turn the page from the future-seeing Inhuman sayng “we have to call the Ultimates” to Tony Stark being told James Rhodes is dead. The entire Thanos fight happens in a several-weeks-ago comic. And there’s not even a caption box or anything. It’s just a page-turn and pow, a fight with Thanos has happened off-panel. There’s not even so much as a caption box, which I suppose makes sense, since what would they tell you? “Sorry, we took out the primary actual plot beat of this $6 comic and published it several weeks earlier. We’d tell you where to find it, but it was actually an issue we only distributed for one day and don’t even have a digital edition of, so basically, if you missed it, it sucks to be you.”

I mean, seriously, why the fuck would you even do this? All of Bendis, Alanna Smith, Tom Brevoort, Wil Moss, Axel Alonso, Joe Quesada, Dan Buckley, and Alan Fine presumably at some point signed off on the idea that their major summer event should be published like this. Why? I mean, not only is it profoundly reader-unfriendly, it doesn’t even read well. It outright feels like there are pages missing in the comic.

Past that… they fridge a woman and a black man. Nothing happens that hasn’t been spoiled extensively in interviews for months. (Actually, that’s not quite true, but we’ll wait for the next review for that.) And again, the comic is six dollars. Six. Fucking. Dollars. An entire month of Netflix is only $2 more than that. Countless excellent novels are available at that price point. Whole CDs of music. I bet there are even markets where you can see Captain America: Civil War for that if you go for a matinee. Or you can buy a forty-page comic that’s missing its main story beat.

Invincible Iron Man #10

Oh, and it also casually spoils all the main plot beats of this arc. I mean, not that there’s any major suspense over whether the characters are going to make it out of this or what will happen to Tony’s company. That’s not how comics suspense works and never has been. But still, this issue neither seems to lead to Civil War II in any meaningful sense, and now Civil War II is here and proclaiming the status quo after the arc’s conclusion. Brilliant, Marvel. Fucking brilliant.…

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And so, after a long month, we come to the end of the Neoreaction a Basilisk Kickstarter. At the time of writing, we’re over $13,000, which means this little bit of trolling went up last night. The last stretch goal is at $14,000, which is very achievable, but definitely requires that we have a big last day. So if you want any of the cool and Kickstarter-exclusive print editions, well, you’ve got less than 24 hours to make that happen. If you need to be nudged off the fence, Andrew Hickey wrote a not-review yesterday. And Sam Keeper wrote a review as part of a new feature she’s doing on her blog. 

Anyway, shameless self-promotion aside, I wanted to thank everybody for their support on this Kickstarter. I really wasn’t sure how sellable this book was. The answer turned out to be “it will net you more backers than any Kickstarter you’ve ever done.” Which is amazing. I’m floored. Every time I think I’ve just about gotten used to the incredible generosity of my readers and the sheer wonder of getting to do what I do for a living, something happens that just blows me away again. I am honored and humbled. Seriously. You’re all fucking amazing.

But that said, it’s not over yet. So please, one last time, spread the word. Run up to people you do not know in the streets and tell them about it. Graffiti major landmarks with advertisements for the book. Arrange the entrails of your next victim to spell out the url. Or at the very least, blast the link out on social media. I know it’s awkward and shit, but really, it helps. Even if you can’t afford to back, and lord knows I get that, just posting the link to your Facebook or Twitter or whatever with a “hey, this cool Kickstarter closes today” really does get the word out. Social media is a huge part of Kickstarter dollars – about a quarter of the money already pulled in came via people linking on social media. So if you can, really, it’s massively appreciated. 

We’ll be back tomorrow with more Vaka Rangi and the weekly comics reviews, which will include not one but two Alan Moore comics. And stop in Friday for another big, cool site announcement. But for now, for the very last time, a link to the Kickstarter.

Thanks for everything.…

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We hit $13k, so it’s time for magick.

First, Gnon, Nick Land’s horror-God of immanent reality, representing the awful truths to which neoreaction is supposedly the only possible response.

But as Land admits, the name is specifically a stand-in – a compromise to forestall the tedious debate over Gnon’s identity. But what is the erased name that Gnon stands in place of? And what might this beast be trying to hide by making its name forbidden? The answer is obvious with just a bit of inspection.

Crisis averted. It was just a silly puppet all along.…

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Man, what is it about sixth episodes. I mean, at least this one’s mediocre cliffhanger isn’t a rape scene, so it’s an improvement over last season. But after two very strong episodes, this is an unfocused, transitional mess. About the best you can say for it is that it makes sense to schedule the burn-off episode for Memorial Day weekend, when nobody will actually be watching, but one doubts they were planning the episode with that sort of precision, so we probably have to call that a lucky coincidence.

Still, this is basically designed boring. It’s not that an episode that drops Tyrion and Jon can’t work, although this is actually the first-ever episode to feature neither of them. But dropping both of them while spending a lot of time in Horn Hill and reintroducing Walder Frey is almost as perverse as “The Red Woman.” So there’s only so much that one can complain about it. It doesn’t make for a great episode, but it makes for a good one. The individual parts are generally well done. The biggest moment is return of Benjen, which is only slightly more surprising than the return of Jon, but it’s still a big moment, and it’s nice to have a version of the story where Benjen is Coldhands. Joseph Mawle conveys a sense of sorrow at his existence that’s really compelling, and it helps make Bran feel like he’s in a relatively interesting place, which isn’t something you can say about him historically, so that’s good.

But it’s generally the not-big moments where it shines. The Horn Hill sequences are lovely – beautifully shot, and alternates charmingly between deft comedic beats and genuine drama. Sam is clearly the least important plot this season, and the amount of the time that’s spent on him is part of what makes this a fairly sleepy episode, but it’s one of those bits that makes you glad Game of Thrones has the narrative space it has. It would be a far weaker show without bits like the cutely melodramatic scene where Sam leaves and comes back, or the quiet thrill of him nicking a blade he’ll probably get to kill another White Walker with.

Similarly, while Arya’s makes a big transition this week, finally pointing herself back towards Westeros, her actual big moment this week is just the reclamation of Needle – a symbolic gesture as opposed to one that actually has immediate consequences. She’s still got a big “kill the Waif” setpiece to do before she can actually start moving back towards the rest of the plot. Still, her scenes this week are all marvelous, from her inappropriate affect at the theater to her slipping into character as Mercy and strange moment of empathy for Cersei, to, of course, the Needle scene. (And a scene with Maisie Williams, Faye Marsay, and Richard E. Grant is an entertaining motley of Moffat guest-actors as well.)

It’s the episode’s two nominally big moments that fall flat – the confrontation in King’s Landing and the final scene.…

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Well, we hit $12k, so I suppose it’s time to post the beginning of the short story that I’ll be adding to the book as the final component if we hit $14,000. All of this was written basically before Neoreaction a Basilisk even started, while I was on a Providence-inspired Lovecraft kick and fooling around with my own spin on “modern day Lovecraft.” I got through, basically, the first section (like “Call of Cthulhu,” there’s a distinctly episodic structure to the plot as I envision it) before getting distracted by accidentally writing a book. But that ended up giving me the ideas I needed to finish it, and the modified idea for the story seems like it’ll fit well into the book, not unlike how “The Immortality of Leelah” fit into Guided by the Beauty of Their Weapons. So, all disclaimers, this is first draft prose, and I’m still not a comfortable fiction writer at all. But if you like it, there’s four days to get the Kickstarter up to $14,000. (And at $13,000, don’t forget, I’ll be doing a magical ritual to neuter the alt-right.)

—-

This site represents my most up to date account of what I have taken to calling the Vala Phenomenon. I have tried to be skeptical and impartial in this matter, not that this will matter to my inevitable critics, but I should stress: I wish I did not know the things I know. I do not sleep anymore. I fear sleep like I fear death. I am not writing this because I think the world should know. I am writing it because I have to. Because I want there to be something left of me. Because the glow of my laptop helps keep me awake.

It started when David killed himself. It wasn’t a surprise to anybody; he’d be the first to tell you he’d always been fucked up. He’d set up a deathswitch, though, which made some projects he’d been working on public and notified some trusted friends, or at least whoever had come to mind when he set it up. We hadn’t had a proper conversation in something like three years when he died, but apparently whenever he set it up, that included me.

Most of it was encryption stuff, which isn’t really a community I follow anymore (yes, I’m that Sarah Harper), but I followed the discussions as people tried to figure out what these projects were and if there was anything worth tinkering with, the communal act of doing so seeming like a good way to mourn what was, for all of us, an old and wondrously idiosyncratic friend.

Anyway, as a side project from some steganography algorithm he’d developed, he’d made a set of photo filters that produced some very startling visual effects, and I found myself fascinated by them. The whole group did, really, at least for a day or two. But after the initial flurry of emails as people put various photos (including many of David) through the filter a sense of unease set in.…

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Very short today, mostly because getting this up is the last thing I have to do before bed and I’m tired. Though I suspect I’ll be back later today with a proper excerpt of the short story that will be the $14,000 stretch goal for Neoreaction a Basilisk, as the Kickstarter’s at $11,750 or so, which means we’ll probably make $12k today. Here’s your convenient link for that.

On the subject of that book, Kit Power did a review of it for Ginger Nuts of Horror, and James Wylder did an interview with me for his site. Both are fun if you’ve got a few minutes.

Finally, 101 Claras to See, a fan anthology on Clara Oswald co-edited by Caitlin Smith, is in its last weekend of availabilty for a hard copy, and also has an electronic edition for sale. I’ve got a piece in it that I’m not going to be reprinting elsewhere, and it’s also got contributions from both Jane and Jill. That’s available here.

And that’ll pretty much do us for this morning. Really hoping to be back this afternoon with a chunk of short story and some vague teasing about magical rituals to neuter the alt-right.

 …

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To round out the series of podcasts promoting Neoreaction a Basilisk (alltogether now, currently available on Kickstarter) I am thrilled to finally have Alex Reed on the Eruditorum Presscast. Alex, of course, is the primary architect of Seeming, and so in one sense has been on every Eruditorum Presscast, since our theme music is of course “Worldburners Unite,” previously described as “a protest song as imagined by Thomas Ligotti. That’s available here for your listening pleasure.

We remain on that exciting/stressful bubble where we could well make the last stretch goal if the weekend goes well, but it’s in no way certain. So I figured I’d talk a bit about the most expensive edition (well, aside from the original plates, which have been snapped up), the Sigil Edition. I’ve not actually mocked one of these up yet (I’m not acquiring the printer I’ll need until after the move), but I’ve got the next best thing as an image here, namely a photo of the audio edition of Unearthing, which came with a transcript of the piece printed in the same style I’ll be using. I’d completely forgotten this was a thing when I came up with the Sigil Edition months ago, and didn’t remember until I was watching the film version of Unearthing and its existence came flooding back. Which was funny. 

The reason this seemed like a fun way to do the high-end edition of the book was that it seemed like it encapsulated the sort of “dispatches from a madman” vibe that the Conspiracy Zine edition had, only moreso. (That’s much of why Moore/Jenkins did it, I think – the same sort of “weird transmission from the outside” vibe that nearly led them to release the film version exclusively on VHS, and that’s implied by the very silly “private and confidential” tag on the envelope.) But it needed something a little bit extra to make it special, and so I merged it with another idea that had been kicking around, namely distributing a bunch of sigils to various people and letting them decide if they wanted to launch them.

Right now I’ve got eleven of them to make, and a nice text document where I’m jotting down possible purposes for the sigils. (The only one I know for sure, as I’ve said before, is “destroy capitalism.”) I’ll draw the sigil on the back of the first page (so it’ll be at the top of the stack when it’s all folded) along with a signature, and then package the whole thing in an envelope to keep it safe, with a print-off of the cover on the outside of the envelope. 

I really like this idea – a distributed magical ritual, the goals of the book encapsulated in a small and finite set of copies, sent out into the world and put in the readers’ hands so they can decide what to do with it. Which is, of course, how books always work.

Anyway, if that’s a thing you want to be a part of, they and all other Kickstarter editions remain for sale through Tuesday.…

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